I Heart Art: Portland Announces Hello Etsy PDX Sessions and Speakers

September 07, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 7, 2011

Jen Neitzel
Owner of DIY Lounge, Co-Chair of Hello Etsy PDX
jen@diylounge.com

Becca Biggs, Director of Communications
Pacific Northwest College of Art
bbiggs@pnca.edu 503-821-8892

I Heart Art: Portland Announces Hello Etsy PDX Sessions and Speakers

Conference | Hello Etsy PDX: A One-Day Conference on Small Business and Sustainability
September 17, 2011, 9 am–6 pm

PACIFIC NORTHWEST COLLEGE OF ART
1241 NW Johnson Street, Portland OR 97209

Tickets: $20, available at http://helloetsypdx.eventbrite.com
Free for PNCA students and alumni

September 7, 2011 – PORTLAND, OR – I Heart Art: Portland announces the program lineup for Hello Etsy PDX: A One-Day Conference on Small Business and Sustainability. In addition to listening to keynote speakers Duane Sorenson of Stumptown Coffee and Rebecca Pearcy of Queen Bee Creations, attendees can explore topics from avoiding toxins in the workplace to building a website in a day.

Hello Etsy PDX participants will set their own agenda for the day, choosing to explore topics and themes relevant to their specific business needs and interests. Each topic is aimed at helping new entrepreneurs build mindful and sustainable businesses. The discussions and presentations reach beyond the art and craft community, allowing restaurant chefs, boutique owners, local farmers and entrepreneurs alike to explore the concepts surrounding sustainable, local, living economies.

Hello Etsy PDX is a satellite conference that takes place in conjunction with the flagship Hello Etsy summit in Berlin, Germany and other Etsy-sponsored conferences around the United States. Hello Etsy: A Conference on Small Business and Sustainability is a hands-on gathering for small business owners who want to connect with their peers, to learn skills to find success and independence and to join the movement to build human-scale economies.

Sessions fall into one of four tracks: The Big Picture, The Product, The Business and The Market. Each will highlight an aspect of the process of building a small business, from coming up with an idea to turning it into a product and taking it to market.

THE BIG PICTURE

Bloom Where You’re Planted: Business Growth
Instructors: Betsy Cross and Will Cervarich, owners, betsy and iya
Understand the snags, needs and successes of owning an indie micro-business.

Customer Service Excellence: How Portland Can Compete in National and Global Markets
Instructor: Amanda McCloskey, executive director, Trillium Artisans
Is Portlandia’s parody of customer service even a little bit true? Join a discussion about Portland’s national customer service reputation and ways that excellent customer service could put Portland on the map.

Success Spotlight: Rogue Ales
Instructor: Jack Joyce, CEO, Rogue Ales
Hear the story of Rogue Ales, from the initial idea to the booming beer business currently operating today. CEO Jack Joyce focuses on the steps and lessons learned through Rogue Ales’ growth.

THE BUSINESS

Better, Smarter, Richer: Seven Business Principles for Solo and Creative Entrepreneurs
Instructor: Jackie B Peterson, CPA, entrepreneur, community activist
Learn seven principles that show the path to financial success, without growing a large enterprise.

Build Your Own Website
Instructor: Isaac B Watson, communications and marketing specialist
It’s never been easier to have a business website without hiring a web designer. Learn about user-friendly platforms and launch your own website in a day.

Money Rocks!* (*If You Know What You’re Doing)
Instructor: Luna Jaffe, CFP, Lunaria Financial, Ltd.
Achieve financial success. Discover ten steps to making money work for you, not the other way around.

THE MARKET

Envisioning Your Craft Book: From Idea to Proposal to Bookstore Shelves
Instructor: Susan Beal, craft writer, designer, author
From idea to proposal to bookstore shelves, Susan gives tips and advice for navigating the world of craft publishing—from pitching blogs to creating a strong book proposal and working with an agent and publisher.

Reframing Your Competition
Instructor: Rosalee Rester, owner, babywit.com
Learn to frame the competition so that they become advantageous allies rather than something to fear.

THE PRODUCT

Brand Visioning Collage
Instructor: Alicia Nagel, brand strategist, graphic designer
Use collage to define and illustrate a brand in order to translate concepts into visuals that help inform marketing messages.

Tasty Branding: How to Turn Your Creative Brand Into an Experience
Instructor: Andrea Mansfield, brand coach
Turn a thousand unique ideas into a creative business brand that sells.

Embracing the Ugly Side of Your Business
Instructor: Kim Werker, blogger and editor
Taking a good hard look at failure can be a healthy part of succeeding in creative business. Explore how your business can thrive by embracing the unsavory bits.

KEYNOTE

Intentional Growth: How Small is Big and How Big is Small?
Duane Sorenson, founder, Stumptown Coffee
Rebecca Pearcy, owner, Queen Bee Creations
Moderated by Diane Gilleland, craftypod.com
Different businesses have different needs. Guided by the examples of two well-known local businesses—Stumptown Coffee and Queen Bee Creations—understand the importance of growing your business with intent.

Through generous support from Etsy and other sponsors, tickets for the all-day conference are only $20, available for purchase online immediately (http://helloetsypdx.eventbrite.com). PNCA students and alumni can attend the conference for free, and Museum of Contemporary Craft members can purchase tickets at half price.

For detailed information about Hello Etsy PDX, visit: http://iheartartpdx.com/hello-etsy

ABOUT I HEART ART: PORTLAND
I Heart Art: Portland is a collaboration between Etsy, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Museum of Contemporary Craft and PDX Etsy, a local team of Etsy sellers. The program offers professional development workshops, community salon discussions and unique networking opportunities for Portland’s vibrant community of makers. Learn more at iheartartpdx.com

ABOUT ETSY
Etsy is the world’s handmade marketplace with a mission to empower people to change the way the global economy works. They see a world in which very small businesses have much more sway in shaping the economy, local living economies are thriving everywhere, and people value authorship and provenance as much as price and convenience. Etsy brings heart to commerce and makes the world more fair, more sustainable and more fun. Etsy is headquartered in DUMBO, Brooklyn, and also has offices in Hudson, NY, San Francisco, CA, and Berlin, Germany.

ABOUT MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CRAFT
Committed to the advancement of craft since 1937, Museum of Contemporary Craft in partnership with Pacific Northwest College of Art is one of Oregon’s oldest cultural institutions. Centrally located in Portland’s Pearl District, the Museum is nationally acclaimed for its curatorial program and is a vibrant center for investigation and dialogue, expanding the definition of craft and the way audiences experience it.

ABOUT PACIFIC NORTHWEST COLLEGE OF ART
Since its founding in 1909, Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) has become a leader in innovative educational programs that connect students to a global perspective in the visual arts and design. In addition to its nine Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees, PNCA offers graduate education with an MFA in Visual Studies, a Low-Residency MFA in Visual Studies and an MFA in Collaborative Design, as well as an MFA in Applied Craft and Design developed in collaboration with the Oregon College of Art and Craft.

PNCA is actively involved in Portland’s cultural life through exhibitions and a vibrant public program of lectures and internationally recognized visiting artists, designers and creative thinkers. With the support of PNCA+FIVE (Ford Institute for Visual Education), the College has a partnership with the nationally acclaimed Museum of Contemporary Craft. For more information, visit www.pnca.edu.